Buck O'Neil to play in minor league all-star game, at 94.

[jobycom]

It's a travesty that this man is not in the MLB Hall of Fame, btw.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/baseball/more/07/18/bc.bbo.buckatbat.ap/index.html?cnn=yes

The Kansas City T-Bones signed O'Neil to a one-day contract, likely making him the oldest professional baseball player. He would surpass 83-year-old Jim Eriotes, who struck out in a minor league game in South Dakota earlier this month, by more than a decade.

In May, 17 people from the Negro Leagues and pre-Negro Leagues eras were voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. On a day that was to be his crowning achievement, O'Neil quietly sat at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Mo., and accepted that his name wasn't called.

A lifetime .288 hitter and two-time Negro League batting champion, O'Neil became Major League Baseball's first black coach with the Chicago Cubs. He went on to discover Hall of Famer Lou Brock and countless others as a scout, and now works tirelessly with Kendrick to keep alive the story of the Negro leagues.

His exclusion from the Hall of Fame caught nearly everybody by surprise. Players including Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks and Brock took aim at the selection process, and Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Kansas City, said the vote had left "a community in tears."

"He should be celebrated in baseball," said Kansas City T-Bones manager "Dirty" Al Gallagher, a former San Francisco Giants pitcher who met O'Neil in the late 1960s. "Why the commissioner hasn't put him in the Hall of Fame, I have no idea."

[GOPisEvil]

1. He's a true living legend.

He's on my short list of people that I would love to meet.

[jobycom]

2. Judging from the non-responses, you and I are on a short list!

[GOPisEvil]

3. Well...maybe the baseball fans will show up later.

I can't imagine sharing, say, a cross-country flight with too many more interesting people.

[NJ Democrats]

4. Amazing

At 94, playing in a game. It is a travesty that he isn't in the HOF. I definitely thought he would get in

[evlbstrd]

5. Thsi is a wonderful thing.

I'd like to get out there to see that. Wonder how he'll handle the 100 degree heat?
You can visit the Negro League Museum and find Buck there most of the time, and he'll talk to you almost endlessy about those players. He's a National Treasure.

[Oeditpus Rex]

6. Al Gallagher's managing in the minors?

Alan Mitchell George Edward Patrick Henry Gallagher, the former Giants third baseman?

Huh.

[SeattleGirl]

7. Buck O'Neil is a wonderful man, and should definitely have gone

into the Basball Hall of Fame. I say, let's put those who DID NOT VOTE FOR HIM in the Baseball Hall of Shame!

As to him playing in the minor league game, what I wouldn't give to see him do that! That is just wonderful!

Have any of you read his book, "I Was Right on Time"? It's a great book! He is quite the story-teller.

[jobycom]

10. I agree about those who didn't vote for him. Shame on all of them. I

haven't read his book, but I've heard him speak. Never forget an interview he did with Jim Rome. He started talking about hanging out in NYC with other players, and with other entertainers of the day, and he started naming people like Duke Ellington, Miles Davis... You could hear the awe in Rome's voice, not just for who O'Neil is and was, but for what he's seen.

I'll put his book on my short list. That's a perfect title.

[democracyindanger]

8. I've got serious doubts

about things like this ever since I saw Jamal Wilkes dislocate his knee in the last NBA veteran's allstar game.

O'Neil is great, belongs in the Hall, but this event...I dunno...

[jobycom]

9. LOL! He's not playing, he's just going to be intentionally walked

then lifted from the game. If he can still golf his own age (as he claims) he can walk to first base.

Now, if someone beaned him, that would get wild.